GoKawiilI liked last year's Nothing Phone 3A Pro so much that I awarded it a coveted CNET Editors' Choice Award, so its follow-up, the Nothing Phone 4A Pro, has a lot to live up to. I've spent some time with the phone, and there's certainly plenty to like -- from its fresh pink design to its capable processor. But Nothing's phones have always had one other key advantage: price.
At $499 in the US and £499 in the UK, the Phone 4A Pro is unquestionably affordable, especially considering its solid roundup of specs. Its main competition is the Google Pixel 10A, which is the exact same price and has recently impressed in our full review thanks to its all-around performance (with the $599 iPhone 17E trailing behind in value). It's too early to say just how the Phone 4A Pro stacks up against Google's phone, but it's certainly got enough to justify your consideration.
Here's what you need to know about this affordable Android phone.
Nothing Phone 4A Pro: Pink design with Glyph Matrix
My favorite thing about the phone is its pink color. Does that make me extremely shallow? Yes, but I'm fine with that. I love pink gadgets. I managed to turn my cosmic orange iPhone 17 Pro pink with chemicals, and I had a custom pink wrap put on my expensive Leica Q3 43. It's a subtle pink, rather than hot pink like the old Motorola Razr V3, but it's a fun color that doesn't take itself too seriously -- and that's refreshing.
So many of today's phones come in dreary shades of black, silver or gray, so I genuinely appreciate when a brand injects a bit more personality into the mix. That said, Nothing has made some significant design changes here. The company is known for its see-through plastic-back phones that show some of the components underneath, along with its "Glyph" LED light patterns. I loved that look on the 3A Pro and the Nothing Phone 1 and 2 before it.
The Glyph Matrix is arguably a bit of a gimmick. Andrew Lanxon/CNET
There is still an element of that here, but it's been gathered up and squashed into the camera bar, with roughly 70% of the phone now being a plain expanse of aluminum. Cover up the camera bar and you could be looking at basically any other phone. The bar itself looks interesting, with some of the visible screw heads that maintain that industrial feel. It's also where you'll find the three camera lenses and the Glyph Matrix introduced on last year's much more expensive Nothing Phone 3.
The Matrix is essentially a circular dot-matrix display that can display information such as the time, battery level or incoming notifications. But Nothing has opened the Glyph up to allow developers or users to create their own tools, such as a countdown timer to when your Uber is due to arrive. The Phone 3's Glyph Matrix was touch sensitive, allowing it to use what Nothing called "Glyph toys," such as spin the bottle, while the 4A Pro's is simply a display.
I found those features somewhat gimmicky, and the new Glyph Matrix -- used as a display rather than an interactive toy -- loses little in terms of functionality while offering a better overall experience. Whether it proves to be any more useful remains to be seen. I do also think it's a bit of a shame that the Phone 4A Pro lacks any of the flashing LED lights the company is known for; even the more affordable Phone 4A only has a modest cluster of lights to alert you to incoming calls.
... continue reading